maybe we'll be all right
by Daughter of Cid
Summary: Auron learns to count life in days and months. Warning: baby!fic.


Five months and eleven days after the Fayth unceremoniously booted him from the Farplane, Auron is sitting on the deck of the Celsius in quiet meditation when Rikku barrels into him, collapsing into tears in his lap. He wraps his weaker left arm around her and rubs the base of her neck with his right hand, trying to get her to calm down enough to tell him the reason for her tears.

After the worst of the crying is over, Rikku just lays her head on his shoulder and sighs, "Auron, I think I'm dying."

Rikku rattles off her list of reasons for believing so and a small lump begins to grow in Auron's throat.

***

Yuna is waiting for them at the beach when the airship arrives in Besaid; Shinra had managed to reach her on one of the surviving CommSpheres to ask if the village still had a healer.

Rikku laughs when Auron insists that Yuna drop the 'sir'. "It's just Auron now, Yuna. Or, should I say 'High Summoner Yuna'?" She watches them banter back and forth for a few minutes, remembering the times when she was sure they'd never smile again. She only interrupts when the wave of nausea hits and she needs Auron to steady her. She doesn't have the energy to protest when he decides to carry her to the village.

The village healer, an elderly woman with a kind face, meets them in Wakka and Lulu's hut.

"Girls only! Boys please wait outside!"

Wakka and Tidus discuss blitz strategy as Auron silently counts the days since his return to Spira, the days since the airship landed in the Calm Lands ('This is so much faster than walking!', she exclaimed as she dragged him inside), the days since she showed him Masamune and blushed when he asked why she had it, the days since she stopped blushing when they touched, the days since Buddy warned them that 'a little louder and Brother'll hear'.

He's counting back from the night they spent camping in the Thunder Plains when he realises that Wakka is talking to him.

"So, you and Rikku, ya? Yuna told me but I didn't really believe it."

"I love her," is all he can think to say.

"Took you long enough," Tidus remarks, leaning against the hut. "It wasn't my place to say anything back then, but she's liked you for a long time."

***

When Lulu and Yuna emerge from the tent, he sees the affirmation on their faces. Lulu simply smirks as she hands Vidina off to Wakka and Yuna can't look him in the eye when she tells him he's wanted inside.

Rikku is sitting on the bed softly crying and his heart breaks a little. She's too young and he should have known better.

She leans into him when he sits down beside her. "Rikku, it'll be fine."

"I'm pregnant," she whispers into his chest. "Auron, we're going to have a baby."

He nods. "I thought so."

Rikku smacks him in the stomach. "You thought so? Why didn't you say something? I thought I was dying!" She pouts, "Big meanie."

He kisses the top of her head and has the decency to look abashed. "Well, I wasn't sure--"

"You're the father, I take it?" The healer interrupts and Auron finally notices her presence. She clarifies, "The baby's father?"

'Not _her_ father?' is the question Auron knows she really wants to ask.

***

Brother kicks them off the Celsius when Rikku tells him. "I give the orders around here and no babies! Flying not safe for babies."

He and Buddy help Wakka and Tidus fix up the abandoned hut by the Crusaders' Lodge before flying off.

***

Rikku is napping in bed beside him when he hears the airship's engines again a few days later. He gently disentangles himself from her embrace, pulls a shirt on, and heads out towards the beach.

He meets Cid on the cliff outside the village.

"I'm not gonna say I'm happy about this," Cid starts. "Rikku's my baby girl and she could sure as heck do better than you, but she chose you and that's her right. If Rikku asks for it, you two will have my blessing. But," Cid stares him down and, for the first time since Yunalesca, Auron feels a cold sweat running down his back, "you leave her again and not even the Farplane will be safe for you. I'll hunt you down and make you hurt, you got that?"

***

A year and twenty-two days after being given a second chance at life on Spira, Auron is sitting on the warm sand of the Besaid beach in quiet meditation when Rikku sits down beside him and cradles their daughter against her chest.


End file.
